He: A Point of Divine Unity*
In His Name, be He glorified. There is nothing but it glorifies Him with praise.
My dear and faithful brothers and sisters! While reflecting on air during a mental journey, a subtle point related to Divine Unity suddenly became clear to me in the word He in “There is no deity but He” and “Say: He is God.” I saw that the way of belief is so easy as to be necessary, and that the way of misguidance and associating partners with God is so hard as to be inconceivable. I shall explain this comprehensive matter briefly.
A handful of soil serves as a flowerbed for hundreds of flowers. If this process is attributed to nature or causality, each handful must contain hundreds of minute machines or factories [to produce the flowers] and an immaterial factory [to determine and govern their lives in place of Divine Knowledge and Destiny]. Or, each atom must know how to make each flower’s different characteristics and living elements. Thus each atom would have infinite knowledge and power, which are unique to God.
Each air molecule (a conductor of Divine Will and Command) in each gust, each shift of air making the sound He, must have minute centers, exchanges, receivers, and transmitters of all human means of communication so that each air molecule can perform those countless acts at the same time. Or, each atom or molecule must control all relevant faculties (of mind, spirit, personality, etc.) of all means of communication, know their users’ languages, and transmit them to other particles at the same time. Unbelievers, naturalists, and materialists ask us to believe this impossibility.
If attributed to the Majestic Maker, however, all air particles become soldiers under His Command. Through their Creator’s permission and Power, their connection to and reliance on Him, and the manifestation of their Maker’s Power, they perform their innumerable universal duties as easily as if they were one atom with only one duty. Their duties are performed instantly, and with the ease of uttering He and the movement of air. And so air becomes a “page” for the Pen of Power’s endless, wonderful, orderly inscriptions. Its particles become the Pen’s ribs, and the particles’ duties become the points inscribed by the Pen. All of this is done with the same ease as it takes to move one atom.
While observing and studying the world of air, I saw this truth clearly and in detail. I realized with a certainty based on knowledge that this is so because the actual word He and its utterance are both brilliant proofs and gleams of Divine Unity. I understood that its meaning and resonances contain a radiant manifestation of Divine Oneness and strong proof of Divine Unity. Moreover, that proof contains an indication to the identity of the One to Whom the indefinite, third-person, singular pronoun He refers. I came to know that both the Qur’an of Miraculous Expression and those who constantly recite the Divine Names frequently repeat this sacred word to express Divine Unity.
If several points are jumbled around one, it is almost impossible to distinguish that point. If you do several jobs simultaneously, you will be confused. If a living creature is loaded with many burdens at once, it will be crushed. If you listen to or say many words simultaneously, they become confused and muddled.
However, I saw with a certainty based on clear observation that although thousands of points, letters, and words are deposited in each air molecule—even in each atom—they are conveyed without confusion or irregularity. Also, the air performs its duties simultaneously and without confusion. Each air molecule or atom bears heavy burdens without lagging behind or displaying any weakness. Also, I saw countless words enter ears and leave mouths with perfect order. By performing all of its extraordinary duties, each atom and air molecule says in the tongue of its being and functioning, in ecstasy and perfect freedom, and through its testimony: “There is no deity but He” and “Say: He is God, the One.” All of them travel among air-clashing waves like lightning and thunderstorms in perfect order and harmony.
Given this, can we assert seriously that each atom or air molecule necessarily has infinite wisdom, knowledge, will, power, and all qualities needed to dominate all other particles so that it can perform those functions? Or, from a position of certainty based on knowledge, clear observation, and personal experience, can we assert logically that air functions here as a changing “page” for the Pen of Power and Destiny, used by the All-Majestic One with infinite knowledge and wisdom, and as a signboard (the Tablet of Abrogation and Confirmation) reflecting a changeable copy of the Divine decrees preserved on the Supreme Preserved Tablet?
Air shows these wonders and manifestation of Divine Oneness by transmitting sound, and shows the impossibility of what the misguided assert. In the same way, it performs other duties (e.g., transmitting such subtle forces as electricity and light, attraction and repulsion) while simultaneously transmitting sound. It also carries out duties essential for plant and animal life (e.g., respiration and pollination) with perfect order and without confusion.
Air is a very important means of conveying the Divine Will and Command. It performs its duties without any real or imagined interference from random chance, blind force, deaf nature, confused and aimless causality, or powerless, lifeless, and unknowing matter. I also understood that each atom and air molecule proclaims in the tongue of its being and functioning: “There is no deity but God” and “Say: He is God, the One.” Just as I witnessed these wonders in the physical aspect of air with the key of He, so air itself became a key, like He, to the World of Symbols or Ideas and the World of Meaning.
Peace be upon everybody!
Bediuzzaman Said Nursi
* The Thirteenth Word / Second Station